As we head down the home stretch of the most important election in our lifetimes, Republicans have generally focused their talking points on several issues, including crime.
To hear the GOP talk, Democrats are well under way to making our country a crime-infested hell hole. It’s as if crime never occurs in states and cities controlled by Republicans. As Washington Post columnist Philip Bump wrote recently: “The right has been tying Democrats and big cities and crime together with great energy since the summer of 2020.”
But is the GOP really into the police that much to begin with?
Oh, they’re fine if they’re manhandling liberal protestors, but that support sure shrunk fast when officers were beaten by a mob sent by former president/cult leader Donald Trump to the Capitol to try to steal the last election. Or when Republicans demonized the FBI when it had the audacity to serve a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence after he stole classified documents while leaving office.
It’s funny to hear Republicans talk about crime, considering their protection of a criminal ex-president and their embrace of the corruption his administration brought to the federal government.
And it shouldn’t be lost that based on their DNA – no matter how much they pontificate – they’re not going to take the serious steps needed to combat this important issue.
How so? Let’s look at some reasonable ideas to address crime in this country and the GOP’s track record, which is a product of their pro-rich, anti-poor-and-middle class, agenda.
Increasing spending on police
This is asking Republicans to spend more money on making sure police departments are adequately funded, staffed, supplied, and trained. Do you expect a party that’s always looking for spending cuts that can be passed on in reduced taxes to their rich donors will be willing to open up the government pocketbook for this?
The GOP lies all the time about Democrats wanting to the “defund the police.” The fact is their party voted against the American Rescue Plan, which provided money to communities to help fund their police departments during the pandemic.
Tackling the gun issue
No matter how much Second Amendment smoke Republicans try to blow up our nation’s collective ass, we have too many guns in the hands of the wrong people. And we have weapons and accessories of such killing potential that they have no business being in the possession of ordinary citizens.
These and other important issues related to guns will never be addressed by the Republicans, most of whom will reflexively vote against anything that resembles an attempt to come up with common sense gun laws.
They’ll just sit back, gin up fear among their base that all Democrats want to do is take their guns, count their donations from duped gun enthusiasts who think their rights are in danger, and watch the mass shootings pile up.
Oh, I forgot, they will offer thoughts and prayers. Those won’t cost them anything.
Addressing economic and social factors that lead to crime
There’s no chance Republicans will want to do anything about the major underlying causes of a lot of the crime in this country, staring with the poverty that leads to so much of it.
The GOP’s opposition to programs that help the poor is longstanding. Not only will they continue to try to increase the massive wealth gap in our country, they’ll spend more time demonizing people that need help than trying to figure out ways to give them a hand up to a better life.
That includes our educational system. In lieu of strengthening it for all students, Republicans would rather push vouchers that’ll leave the poorest kids behind with even less chance to succeed, indulge in conspiracy theories about critical race theory (which isn’t taught in public schools), and parrot ludicrous lies about teachers “grooming” students and trying to change their sexual orientation.
Just like our problems with immigration at the border, the root cause is of no concern to a party in search of headlines and talking points instead of solutions.
Demanding police accountability
Hand-in-hand with making sure police departments are properly funded should be a demand for accountability for officers who go too far in carrying out their duties. This isn’t an indictment against all police officers – most are good at what they do – but their enforcement efforts, and the officers’ safety, will always be negatively affected when the public sees rouge policemen getting away with unnecessary violence against private citizens.
This type of accountability is an investment in more effective policing by buoying trust from the community that is at times found lacking for good reason when officers get away with – literally and figuratively – murder.
Now, do you expect that the GOP, a party whose cult leader Trump has called for and supported aggressive police tactics, is going to demand better treatment of citizens? Especially when so many of those abused are minorities, which as a group Republicans have tried to paint as the main reason for crime in this country in the first place.
It ain’t happening.
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Crime is a serious issue in this country. No one here is saying it’s not, but the GOP is an unserious party when it comes to actually governing. An honest look at it will tell you that.
Talking points and cliches aren’t answers. But that’s all that a party trying to make you forget its voting record has at this stage of the game. When you basically vote against anything that moves this country forward, and your main goal is to retain and grow your power by any means – including gutting our democracy and rule of law -- you’ve got to find things to distract people from who you really are.
Don’t fall for it.
The stakes are too high, and the damage will be catastrophic if we do.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.